Christie's next month will sell The Eden Rose, a rare internally flawless 10.2-carat brilliant-cut pink diamond that takes its name from a flower symbolizing unconditional love. The strikingly perfect gemstone is expected to realize between $9 million and $12 million at its auction debut.
“We are anticipating significant interest from around the world,” said Rahul Kadakia, Christie’s international head of jewelry, in a statement. The Eden Rose is the most significant pink diamond to come to auction since the auction house’s 2012 sale of the Martian Pink, a 12.04-carat diamond signed by Harry Winston that fetched $17.4 million.
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Classified as Type IIa, or the most chemically pure type of diamond, the pink gemstone features a round brilliant cut known to maximize light reflection. Its value is heightened by its “pure pink hue,” according to Christie’s, a rarity among pink diamonds which normally display secondary hues of purple, orange or gray.
The scarcity of pink diamonds, one of the rarest gemstones in the world, has risen in recent years since the closure of the Argyle Mine. Located in Western Australia, the mine for decades produced 90 percent of the world’s pink diamonds until it shut down in 2020 amid economic challenges.
How are pink diamonds created?
Researchers studying the Argyle Mine last year shed some light on the mystery behind how pink diamonds is created. While scientists were already aware that carbon and slight pressure were two ingredients contributing to the color, a 2023 study from the journal Nature Communications revealed the region’s abundance of pink diamonds was linked to the break-up of the world’s first supercontinent, Nuna, which occurred 1.3 billion years ago and pushed the diamonds to the earth’s surface.
The auction record for any pink diamond was set in 2017 when Sotheby's sold the 59.60-carat CTF Pink Star for a staggering $71.2 million. A year later, Christie’s auctioned off the 18.96-carat Pink Legacy for $50 million, breaking the world record price per carat for a pink diamond. The auction house previously sold pink diamonds like the 14.23-carat Perfect Pink, 15.81-carat Sakura and 16.08-carat Sweet Josephine, which realized $23.2 million, $29.3 million and $28.5 million respectively. In June of last year, Sotheby’s sold The Eternal Pink, a 10.57-carat purplish-pink gem, for $34.8 million.
The Eden Rose will star in Christie’s upcoming New York Magnificent Jewels Sale on June 11, which will offer up other colored and colorless diamonds and gemstones alongside vintage signed pieces from Bulgari, Cartier, Tiffany & Co. and Van Cleef & Arpels and include the jewelry collections of American socialites and heiresses like Sunny Crawford von Bulow, Margaret Thompson Biddle and Jeannette Edris Rockefeller. Ahead of its sale, the rare pink diamond will be exhibited in Hong Kong between May 24 and May 27 and displayed in New York between June 7 and June 10.